Home
by TabbyCat33098
Summary: Grant Ward reflects upon questions various people have asked him throughout his life and wonders what his answers say about him. Or, the one in which Grant Ward earns himself a chance for redemption. Redemption arc, character study, fix-it. Rated for language.


A/N: I don't know what this is. It's total crap, it really is. Wow. I'm marathoning MAoS, and I watched episode 20 last night and this just kinda...happened? It's canon divergence from the time when Grant and Deathlok capture Skye again after LA. In this fic, Coulson never makes it onto the plane to rescue Skye.

Also. I don't know shit about guns, cars, or bullet wounds, and google was absolutely zero help, so if I screwed those bits up (despite how vague I tried to be), I'm sorry in advance. Please don't hate me.

In the end, I'm just a silly Skyeward shipper who needs a Ward redemption arc. This is essentially my "fix it" to Ward screwing up with Garrett and Hydra.

Happy reading! :)

* * *

Raina had once asked him how he could, in good conscience, betray Coulson, as if he didn't owe the man something.

Grant had replied that he may have owed Coulson something, but he owed Garrett everything.

He wonders if that hasn't changed.

-xx-

Garrett meets them inside the compound after Grant lands the Bus. "Do you have the drive?" he asks impatiently as Grant enters the room, Dethlok close behind. Grant smirks and tosses his former SO the drive.

"And it's been decrypted," he says, pride flashing through his eyes.

Garrett cocks an eyebrow. "Deathlok, go give this to Flowers," he says, passing the drive to the supersoldier. Deathlok nods once and walks out, leaving Grant and Garrett alone. Garrett strides up to Grant and slaps him on the back. "Well done," he says, and Grant can't help the relief that spreads through his body at the praise.

"I brought you a little something, sir," Grant says, his smile growing wider. "A gift."

Garrett studies Grant's face. "Well, let's see it," he says.

"Wait just one moment," Grant says, and leaves the room to get Skye. He forces Skye upright once he reaches her, ignoring her cry of pain at being manhandled, and uncuffs her from the wall support he'd chained her to before meeting Garrett. He twists her arms behind her back, cuffs her again, and pushes her forward. He swallows the apologies on his lips, knowing she wouldn't believe him anyway.

Garrett grins in delight when he sees Skye enter the room. Grants pushes her forward. She stumbles slightly, losing her balance, but she stands tall and proud, a look of defiance hardening her eyes. "She'll be useful bait for Coulson and his team," Grant offers, suppressing the urge to turn around the way he came and keep Skye hidden away from Garrett. It hurts more than he thought it would to deliver Skye to Garrett, but he had an assignment, and it didn't leave any room for emotional attachment to the enemy.

Garrett strides forward to examine her and gives her an appreciative once-over. "Why don't we use this opportunity to tie up some loose ends instead?" he says cryptically, before pulling out a pistol and shooting her just above the knee.

-xx-

Skye had once asked him what the longest he'd been deep undercover was.

Grant had replied with sixteen months on a mission in Russia, swallowing the only slightly more true answer of all the years he'd been with SHIELD.

He wonders when SHIELD had stopped being a cover and became the only life he wanted to live.

-xx-

"What the hell?" Grant shouts as Skye collapses to the ground in pain. "You promised you wouldn't hurt her!"

Garrett shrugs, his eyes on Skye as she sobs and writhes on the ground. "Just an incentive for her to cooperate. And I'm not going to hurt her." He looks up at Grant now, cold indifference hardening his face. "You are."

Grant reels, bile rising in his throat. "What?" he says, his voice hoarse. His eyes narrow in disbelief, and he finds himself hoping that this isn't real, this isn't truly happening. But no matter how many times he blinks, Garrett's image never wavers.

"You heard me," Garrett says, his voice still pleasant, a stark contrast to the steely set of his body. "You understood when you infiltrated SHIELD that you may be required to hurt people you called allies, and you went in knowing that you didn't have the privilege of making emotional connections. I want to know beyond certainty that you're no longer loyal to SHIELD, and what better way of doing that than by killing Skye?" Garrett smiles, but it holds no warmth. "After all, I thought you said you were done with her. If that's the case, then you shouldn't have a problem, should you?"

Grant swallows tightly, his gaze locked on Skye. Her movements are slowing, her eyes open and glazed, and she's losing blood quickly. Grant tries to think past the rage and worry and betrayal fogging his mind. He vaguely notes Garrett's smile dropping from his face and cuts him off before he can speak. "Fine," Grant says quietly, his voice hard. He pulls out his own gun and aims. His finger rests on the trigger, but before he tightens it, he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, pushing out all his emotions on the exhale.

"Rot in hell, you backstabbing traitorous bastard," he says under his breath, and raises the gun and shoots Garrett twice in the head, like he should have done in the first place.

-xx-

Grant's older brother had once asked him to push his younger brother into a well.

Grant had replied with a shaky nod and a hard shove, trying his best to convey a message of sorry and hemademe andididnthaveachoice through his eyes.

He wonders why the same feeling of helplessness is washing over him now as did then.

-xx-

Grant knows he can't stick around. Any minute now, Deathlok with return, and Grant doesn't stand a chance against him, not alone. Grant scopes out the room, a dozen plans already formulating in his mind. Finally as he hears footsteps approaching, he arrives at a decision.

Skye has stopped moving save for the occasional twitch. Her eyes are closed and her face has lost it's color. Grant spends only a second to take this in, and then he's scooping her up and pushing through the door. "Out of my way," he commands, wading through a group of junior HYDRA members. "She needs medical." He pretends to head towards medical, but switches paths and breaks into a sprint once the group is out of sight.

Within moments, he finds himself in the garage. He throws Skye into the backseat of an armored ATV and climbs into the front seat. He guns the van and peels out of the garage just as the alarms start to go off. "Shit," he mutters, knowing it won't take Dethlok long to figure out what happened and come after him. He'll just have to hope he can get Skye back to Coulson in time.

He guesses he has maybe a ten minute head start, nowhere near enough time to stop and tend to Skye right now and still make it out safely. He needs to get as far away from the HYDRA base as he can before Deathlok starts tracking him. He's already creating a timetable as he speeds through the countryside, planning when he'll have to switch cars, when he'll have to lay false trails, when he'll finally be able to help Skye (if he isn't too late already).

The HYDRA base is receding in the distance, and Grant can't see any pursuers, but he knows better than to let down his guard yet. He glances forward briefly to make sure there are no obstacles in his way before pulling his icer out and clicking off the safety.

Skye moans quietly and her breath hitches, reminding Grant of the pain she must be in. Grant finally let's the anger and self-hatred he's been suppressing wash over him. This is all his fault. If it hadn't been for him and his damn desire to make Garrett happy, Skye would never have been shot. He let his emotions cloud his judgment yet again, let himself trust in Garrett and Garrett's promises despite the man's skill at lying, and now Skye was in grave danger because of it.

But at least he's done his part. Garrett is finally dead, and with him gone, HYDRA no longer has any real leader to rally behind. Without Garrett's direction, without the Clairvoyant to strike fear and awe into the minds of HYDRA members, SHIELD can take down HYDRA with ease.

Grant may not be able to fix his mistakes, but he can damn well make amends.

-xx-

Garrett had once asked him to swear his loyalty to HYDRA.

Grant had agreed, if only because Garrett had given him back his life, and it was only fair to give Garrett his gratitude.

He wonders why it feels like Coulson was the one who saved him from the life Garrett never gave him in the first place.

-xx-

He manages to escape without being followed. He pulls into the first city he reaches to tend to Skye, extracting the bullet from her leg and stitching up the wound as best he can. His patchwork job won't hold for long, but hopefully it'll last until he can get Skye to Simmons.

He switches cars after determining Skye will survive the next couple hours, stealing the first car he sees that can handle high speeds. He drives through the night and most of the next morning, getting as close to Providence base as possible before he has to walk. Even then, he still spends nearly an hour and a half trekking through the snowy Canadian wilderness with Skye held, bridal style, as close to his chest as possible. Her face has lost what little color it had regained, and she's still unconscious. Grant checks her pulse every few minutes, needing to reassure himself that she's still alive and that he hasn't screwed up everything, just most things.

Finally, he reaches the base, just as the sun reaches it's zenith. "Identify yourself," intones the machine gun, and Grant takes a deep breath. Whether he lives or dies in the next few seconds depends on how he phrases this.

"Former Agent Grant Ward of SHIELD carrying wounded Agent Skye of SHIELD," he says, emphasizing "wounded." "Please, kill me later if you like, but get Skye to Simmons."

There is a pause, and then the mechanical voice says, "We've been expecting you," and the rock slides open.

"Drop your weapons and put your hands above your head!" Coulson calls from inside. Grant can't see him, but he knows instinctively the older man is close by and armed.

"There's no need," Grant says. He lays Skye on the snow in front of him and backs away. "John Garrett is dead. For good, this time. And with his death, HYDRA will fall. But Skye was wounded in the crossfire. I've brought her back so you can heal her. I won't be coming back." He pauses for a second. "It's been fun," he says finally, his voice quiet. "Thank you, sir. And if you get the chance," he says and breaks off, hesitates. "If you get the chance, tell her she made me want to change. Tell her she made me want to be a better man. She won't believe me, but she'll understand." He stares at Skye for a moment longer, then nods once and walks away.

Distantly, he hears one of the other agents slip out to track him, keep an eye on him, and honestly, he'd be surprised if Coulson didn't send someone to shadow him. He won't give the agent the slip, he knows. Hell, he might even make the job a little easier. God knows they both deserve it.

-xx-

Maria Hill had once asked him what SHIELD meant to him.

Grant had snarked at her to hide that he didn't have a damn clue.

Now he knows what SHIELD means to him.

SHIELD means home.

**FIN**


End file.
